Apple’s Fraudulent Website Warning feature has long relied on Google’s Safe Browsing database to protect Safari users from phishing scams, but beginning with iOS 14.5, Apple will proxy the service through its servers themselves to limit the amount of information Google can obtain from you. How MacRumors explains, the database provides Safari with a list of suspected phishing and malware sites. Each time you visit a web page, Safari compares the URL to Google’s list. When it detects a match, it warns you that you are about to put your computer at risk.
Like Chrome and Firefox, Safari uses the Google Safe Browsing Update API, which encrypts the entire URL using a 32-bit hash prefix. That way, Google never knows the exact site you tried to visit. However, it can still collect information such as your IP address. Proxying the service through its servers, Apple can “limit the risk of information leakage. “
The change is just one of a handful of privacy-oriented updates coming to iOS 14.5. The other significant factor is Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature, which will require apps to ask for your permission before tracking it on other apps and websites. Companies like Facebook have spoken out against the change and even went so far as to prepare their own notifications before the update was widely available.